TfL car park developments (12)

Susan Hall: How much additional bail-out funding is needed from the Department for Transport to enable the Mayor’s station car park building programme to be taken forward?

The Mayor: Please see Mayor’s Question 2020/4171.

Crossrail (1)

Alison Moore: How will Crossrail’s new governance structures learn the lessons from previous mistakes and improve the management of the project?

The Mayor: The new Crossrail governance structure, which came into effect on 1 October, allows Crossrail and Transport for London (TfL) to work more collaboratively in the final stages of the programme as it moves from a construction project to an operational railway.
The governance transition will allow for greater integration between the construction and operational aspects of the project as we now work to increase the reliability of the railway ahead of opening.
The formation of both the Elizabeth Line Committee and the Elizabeth Line Delivery Group will ensure that decision making between Crossrail and TfL is seamless and fully aligned during the critical final phases of the programme. Some members of the previous Crossrail Board have moved across to the new governance structure in order to provide continuity.

TfL car park developments (3)

Susan Hall: How much has TfL spent on consultants advising on plans to build over station car parks?

The Mayor: Please see Mayor’s Question 2020/4161.
Across the 14 projects, £1.8m has been spent on consultants including architects, planning consultants, heritage advisors and landscape architects.

TfL Adverts and Sponsored Content

Shaun Bailey: How much has TfL spent on adverts and other sponsored content in newspapers, each year since 2015/16 including the current year? Please provide a breakdown.

The Mayor: The accompanying table shows the media costs for adverts placed in the Evening Standard, Metro, City A.M. and local newspapers, and for newspaper partnership activity, since 2015/16. The latter is paid for ‘advertorial’ partnerships rather than sponsorship and enables Transport for London to deliver more detailed information rather than through a single advert.
TfL’s paid advertising is vital to reaching Londoners and others travelling in London with important information about safety, fares, sustainable travel options, scheme changes such as the operating information on the ULEZ, and other aspects of travel.
In 2016, the partnership activity in the Evening Standard, City A.M. and the Metro explained the best value fares for customers. In 2019, the Metro activity explained the causes and consequences of poor air pollution, and how Londoners can collectively make a difference.

Supporting London’s Chinese community

Leonie Cooper: How are you supporting London’s Chinese business community, with the increased incidences of Sinophobia since the outbreak of COVID-19?

The Mayor: I stand with all East and South East Asian Londoners in solidarity against the crime of Sinophobia.
My Deputy Mayor, Debbie Weekes-Bernard met with Chinese, East and South East Asian community groups in the summer and I had a follow up meeting in November to discuss the rise in hate crime and the challenges faced by the business community this year.
My team has also joined fortnightly forums hosted by the MPS with the Chinese & South East Asian community to raise awareness about hate crime and issues that affect this community group. This forum, developed in response to COVID-19, includes the Chinese business community, Dedicated ward Officer for Chinatown, BTP, TFL, Local Authority Hate Crime Representatives, other Police Forces & MOPAC .
My team will continue to support all sectors of London’s Chinese community by involving them in the London Recovery programme and keeping them informed of support opportunities.

IA 16767 - Trams Management of Operational Risk Audit (8)

Keith Prince: Starting from 1 September 2016, please provide me with all documentation (initiating letters, terms of reference, emails, handwritten notes, audit drafts) associated with or referring to IA 16767, including all correspondence relating to its cancellation.

The Mayor: I have asked Transport for London to respond to this request and an updated answer will be uploaded once available.

Transport for London Staff Salaries

Shaun Bailey: What was the percentage in pay rises received by TfL staff for each year from 2015/16 including the current year?

The Mayor: The attached table shows the percentage in pay rises received by Transport for London (TfL) staff from 2015-2020.

TfL Advertising Spend

Shaun Bailey: Please provide a breakdown of TfL’s annual expenditure on advertising, and by type, for each for the last 3 years.

The Mayor: Transport for London’s (TfL’s) paid advertising is spent on informing travellers about how they can travel in London. It is vital to reaching those audiences with important information about safety, fares, sustainable travel options and other aspects of travel.
Since 2014/15 and 2015/16 when we spent £16.8m and £14.5m respectively, our advertising spend has decreased significantly. The table below shows the advertising expenditure by media channel for each of Transport for London’s previous three financial years.
FY April 2017 – March 2018
FY April 2018 – March 2019
FY April 2019 – March 2020
FY April 2020-October 2021
Digital (inc search to help customers find relevant information on the TfL website)
£1,034,509.98
£1,510,096.40
£1,435,494.63
£710,507.44
Posters
£2,180,050.22
£2,639,766.34
£2,093,141.41
£435,039.89
Press
£1,506,951.37
£1,264,295.71
£914,680.46
£233,857.78
Radio
£1,755,266.45
£1,856,985.78
£1,177,240.35
£2,500,270.77
Social (inc Facebook and Twitter)
£275,981.81
£285,856.36
£53,234.82
£118,937.75
TV
-
-
£837,934.95
-
Cinema
-
-
£592,621.28
-
Video on demand
£407,228.06
£580,284.83
£970,683.79
£77,854.48
Total
£7,159,987.89
£8,137,285.42
£8,075,031.69
£4,333,868.95
Please note:

Crossrail’s Managing of Risk

Caroline Pidgeon: Is it correct that in May 2018 Crossrail decided to discontinue the monitoring and updating of its risk registers as part of the project’s ‘demobilisation’ and that the risk management process was only reinstated in April 2019, following remobilisation of the risk management function? If this is the case, do you think this is acceptable and what steps did you take to address this?

The Mayor: In early 2018, Crossrail’s previous leadership team expected the project to meet its original forecasted opening date. There was a belief that the project risks, which typically relate to cost and schedule, would reduce the closer it got to completing the railway. As a consequence, Crossrail Ltd modified the way risks were reported and controlled and demobilised the risk management resources.
When it was clear that Crossrail Ltd would not meet its December 2018 opening, the Joint Sponsors commissioned KPMG to conduct two independent reviews of the project, which raised concerns about the modified risk process. Taking account of KPMG’s findings Crossrail Ltd re-established the original model of project risk management, in early 2019, and re-mobilised its resources. I am confident that the project and leadership team now have a firm grip on managing project risks.

TfL’s 30 Year Contract with First Group TOL (1)

Keith Prince: Question 2019/0150 asked you very specifically whether you “as Chair of TfL, considered the possibility of ending FirstGroup TOL's 30-year contract and re-tendering the operation”. In response you stated “TfL does not have any plans to change the contractual arrangement in place at this time,” which you must surely agree does not answer the question?

The Mayor: I do not agree. Of course it was right for possible legal avenues to be considered but I gave you my answer which was that there were no plans at the time to change the contractual arrangement in place.

TfL car park developments (7)

Susan Hall: Will TfL list the contracts that they have entered into with development partners in relation to their projects to build over station car parks at (i) High Barnet (ii) Cockfosters (iii) Arnos Grove and (iv) Finchley Central?

The Mayor: In line with the Local Government Transparency Code, Transport for London publish details of tenders and contracts with a value over £5,000. These can be located here. https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/contracts-greater-than-5000

Line Officer access to IA 17780 Fieldwork

Keith Prince: In documents released in Question 2019/17340, a 16 June 2017 email from TfL's Director of London Rail and Sponsored Services to TfL’s (then) MD for Surface Transport provides evidential proof of former TFL Board Member & Safety Panel Chair Michael Liebreich’s concern that TfL executives whose operations were being investigated by the RAIB and Police were provided with access to the IA 17780 audit team’s earliest fieldwork conclusions which, as you know, were watered down before they were published in secret on 15 September 2017.

Do you accept that such access raises risks around the integrity and independence of the audit? What actions have you taken as Mayor and TfL Chair to ensure that current audits by TfL are not compromised?

The Mayor: I refer tomy answers toMayor’s Questions 2020/0023, 2019/12001 and 2019/19759. IA 17 780 was not watered down.The email referred to does not “provide evidential proof” of any untoward behaviour. I do not accept that there are valid concerns as to the integrity and independence of the audit.The substance of the report was not changed.The report was issued to TfL and TOL management teams on 15 September 2017 and sent to the members of the SSHRP on 22 November 2017.
TfL Internal Audit is currently discussing audit process with Network Rail for comparison and to share good practice through individual meetings and workshops.

Implication of 24/7 bus lane trials (1)

Florence Eshalomi: While I agree with your ambition to guard against a car-led recovery from coronavirus, will you pay heed to local residents’ concerns about 24/7 bus lane trials? They have issues with receiving deliveries and also of safely transporting those with mobility issues who need direct access to homes and business.

The Mayor: Transport for London has considered impacts to businesses and households in changing bus lanes to operate at all time. For example, there have been no changes to stopping and waiting facilities, such as loading provision, and no changes to disabled parking bays.
As this is a trial, TfL encourages feedback from the public to help improve the effectiveness of these measures. Any impacted party can submit feedback to TfL via the website https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/buses/all-day-bus-lanes/
This process is ongoing, and where concerns are raised by local residents and businesses, TfL will review sites on an individual basis, with adjustments already made to locations within your constituency.
Please also see my responses to Mayor’s Questions 2020/3712 and 2020/3710.

Refusal to Benchmark London’s Safety Performance to World City Peers

Caroline Pidgeon: Given your election pledge “to lead the most transparent, engaged and accessible administration London has ever seen”, how do you justify your refusal to benchmark (a) London’s Transport Covid-19 deaths as set out in Question 2020/2574and (b) pedestrian deaths involving TfL buses as set out in Question 2020/3277, to its ‘world city’ peers?

The Mayor: As my response to Mayor’s Question 2020/2574 stated, Transport for London (TfL) has already commissioned University College London’s Institute of Health Equity (UCL IHE) to undertake research into the tragic deaths of London bus drivers as a result of Covid-19, and it continues to work with the International Bus Benchmarking Group run by Imperial College London to understand and share knowledge on approaches to Covid-19.
As regards London’s Transport Covid-19 deaths, as I stated previously, TfL has no plans to commission further benchmarking – but I do not accept that that constitutes a ‘refusal’ that runs contrary to the principles of transparency, engagement and accessibility that underpin my administration. The findings from the first stage of the UCL IHE research have already been published on TfL’s website (http://content.tfl.gov.uk/initial-assessment-of-london-bus-driver-mortality-from-covid-19.pdf) and the findings from the second stage will be released once complete. In addition, and in tandem with the aforementioned study, in April this year TfL commissioned a multidisciplinary team from UCL’s Centre for Transport Studies and Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering to explore the nature of the occupational risk posed to bus drivers by their interaction with passengers and the design of the bus itself (in particular the assault screen) – and the findings of that research have also been published on TfL’s website: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/sshrp20201104-item06-additional-information-ucl-report.pdf).
As regards the benchmarking of pedestrian deaths involving buses, as I stated in my answer to Mayor’s Question 2020/3277, Imperial College does not collect data on overall pedestrian deaths and, as bus operations vary in scale and coverage across IBBG member cities, I would not ask Imperial College to produce this comparison. TfL has nonetheless requested that Imperial College undertakes some benchmarking of pedestrian fatalities in collisions with buses using its standard approach of normalising by size of operation. The results are shown in the attached chart, and show that London is at around the group average for pedestrian deaths in collision with buses over the last five years. TfL continues to work toward the Vision Zero target of no one killed or seriously injured in collision with a bus by 2030.